As you read this column today, picture me on a flight to Israel – because that's where I am headed.
Last year, Jonathan Cahn and I led the largest American tour to the Jewish state in 2013. This year, while registration is down slightly because of the Hamas-cide missile attacks, it looks like the 2014 tour will again be the biggest America tour to Israel.
But Jonathan Cahn and I are not leading tours to set attendance records. We're taking groups to Israel to show Americans the truth about the reality of Israel – spiritually and politically.
The very existence of the state of Israel in 2014 is evidence of the greatest miracle of modern times. Don't take my word for it. Listen to what God says.
After the Exodus, God was known as "the One who led the children of Israel out of Egypt." It was a mighty miracle – maybe the biggest since Creation itself or the Flood. But God promises in Jeremiah 16:14-15 a miracle he delivered in the 20th century – the re-formation of the modern Israeli state.
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers."
There you have it – by God's own word, the re-gathering of the children of Israel in the 20th century, a process still going on today, is a bigger miracle than the parting of the Red Sea and taking 3.5 million Jews out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
That's part of the excitement of traveling to Israel – a trip I invite you to take part with me next year. (Sorry, it's too late this year!)
I've been to Israel many, many times. I worked in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent in the 1980s. I came back in the 1990s for a visit or two. And this will be my third trip in the last two years.
Spiritually, there's no other place comparable on the face of the earth. That's a fact. Where else can you go in the world where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, Solomon and Jesus walked? No place. There is nothing else like it.
There are promises from God about this land – some of which have been fulfilled and others yet to be fulfilled.
There are promises to the people of this land, too. Make no mistake about that. And, for you Christians out there, remember what Paul wrote to you about in the book of Romans: That you are grafted in to the promises of the children of Israel, not a replacement of that covenantal, everlasting promise.
The opposition to Israel we see in the world today is merely confirmation of what we should expect, is it not?
Zechariah recorded: "And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."
And it's in this place that Jesus will return, we see in Zechariah 14:4: "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."
It's a great time in history to be alive.
Some suggest there is more written in the Bible about this time than any other, including the time of Jesus.
Israel is a great place to be at a time like this.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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